Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings
Tutankhamun Tomb
Paintings
The tomb of King Tut contained breathtaking treasures
but it also contained some wonderful tomb paintings and scenes. Each
wall of the tomb has a specific theme. The East Wall depicts the Funeral
Procession, the West Wall contains text from the Amduat, the South Wall
depicts his arrival in the Underworld and the North Wall of the tomb
shows the arrival of Tutankhamun in the Afterlife. The tomb of
Tutankhamun was discovered by the English Egyptologist Howard Carter in November 1922. There were so many artefacts
in the tomb of King Tut that Howard Carter
spent 10 years clearing and cataloguing the artefacts. These treasures
tell of many secrets about the life of King Tut. But what
did the Tutankhamun tomb paintings and scenes depict, what secrets do
they hold? What clues do they contain about the life and, more
importantly, the beliefs of King Tut?
Location of the
King Tut Tomb Paintings
Due to the early and untimely death
of the young King Tutankhamun only his burial chamber received
decorations. The centre of the burial chamber
contained the golden colored shrines which housed the large red quartzite sarcophagus,
coffins and mummy of Tutankhamun. King Tut is associated with gold and
all of the walls of the burial chamber have the same golden background
making an ideal background to the tomb paintings.
Ancient Egyptian
Art Style of the Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings
The Ancient Egyptians used art to idealise the
person who was being depicted.
Therefore the Tutankhamun tomb paintings conveyed a happy and orderly lifestyle.
The Egyptian art style depicted all figures as
young and healthy. The figures of people were drawn in profile, with one eye and both shoulders shown frontally
and the legs where seen sidewise. The largest figure
shown on tomb paintings was that of the occupant, in this case
Tutankhamun, regardless of the
actual height of the deceased (Tutankhamun was approximately 5ft 6ins).
Colors of the Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings
The colors traditionally used in tomb paintings
showed that the body of a man painted as a dark
reddish-brown color. The body of a woman was painted as lighter,
yellowish-brown color. These differences in colors represented the
mainly outdoor life of a man as opposed to the more secluded lifestyle
of a woman. The colors used in paintings are highly symbolic and these
symbolisms apply to the colors of the Tutankhamun tomb paintings. Six
basic colors were used in Ancient Egyptian art and paintings - white,
black, red, yellow, blue and green.
A tiny pestle and mortar was used for grinding colors.
The colors used were symbolic and
all had different meanings. This
symbolism of colors was used to great effect when depicting the images
and characteristics of the various Ancient Egyptian pharaohs, gods and
goddesses.
-
White color -
White represented purity, power and greatness, a sacred
color
-
Black color -
Black represented death and the night
-
Red color - Red
represented life and victory. It was also used to convey
anger
-
Yellow color -
Yellow was often used to represent gold and therefore used
to convey that the subject was
imperishable and indestructible. The
eternal color used to depict the the sun god
-
Blue color -
Blue represented water, the sky, life, fertility and
re-birth
-
Green color -
Green was the color of vegetation and represented new life
Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings
on the East Wall - The Funeral Procession of King Tut
The Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings on
the on the east wall depict the following scenes and images:
-
These paintings
provide images of the funeral procession of King Tut
-
The mummy of
Tutankhamun mummy is depicted being pulled on a sledge
-
The 12 people
who are symbolically hauling the sledge were all extremely
important people to King Tut
-
They are all
depicted wearing white sandals which were worn at holy or
sacred ceremonies. The white headbands were also worn at
funerals
-
There are 12
images in total consisting of one group of 5 people, three
groups of 2 people and one lone figure
-
Some of the
figures can be recognised by their clothing in these tomb
paintings:
-
Ay, the
successor to the throne, is recognised as he wears the royal
crown
-
The two viziers
-
Possibly Maya
who was King Tut's chief treasurer
-
Possibly General
Horemheb
-
Possibly High
priests
Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings
on the West Wall - Text from the Amduat
The Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings on
the west wall depict the following scenes and images:
-
Magical text
taken from the royal funerary book called the Amduat
detailing for Tutankhamun a safe route through the
Underworld. Although the Book of the Dead is probably the
most well known book it was originally used by commoners and
was basically a collection of magic spells
-
The Amduat is
the oldest of all the funerary texts
-
The Amduat is
the Book of the Secret Chamber and means "That Which Is in
the Underworld"
-
The Amduat
details the sun god's journey through the 12 divisions of
the underworld starting in the west and ending with the
newborn sun in the East
-
The 12 divisions
of the Amduat correspond to the 12 hours of the night
-
Images of 12
baboons are depicted which are representative of the 12
hours of the night
-
There are also
images of the solar barque and Tutankhamun in the image of
Osiris
Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings
on the South Wall - his arrival in the Underworld
The Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings on
the south wall depict the following scenes and images:
-
King Tut is
followed by Anubis as he appears before Nekhbet (the
embodiment of Hathor)
the patron goddess of Upper Egypt, the personification of
the south, who was associated with the vulture and one
of the two goddesses who were together known as the 'two
ladies of the pharaoh' whose special purpose was to protect
the Pharaoh (Wadjet and Nekhbet)
-
Tutankhamun is
welcomed into the underworld by Hathor, Anubis and Isis in
this tomb painting
Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings
on the North Wall - His arrival in the Afterlife
The Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings on
the north wall depict the following scenes and images:
-
There are three
separate scenes
-
It should be
noted that the Pharaoh was seen as the embodiment of Horus
who was the son of Osiris, protected by Nekhbet and Wadjet,
the son of Re, and called Osiris when he finally died
-
The new Pharaoh,
Ay, officiating as a priest dressed in the leopard skin,
performing "the opening of the mouth" ceremony before the
mummy during Tutankhamun's funeral
-
Tutankhamun
entering the realm of the gods in the afterlife and being
welcomed there by the sky goddess Nut
-
Three separate
images of King Tut depicted in these tomb paintings:
-
Tutankhamun, as
the living embodiment of Horus who was the son of Osiris, wearing
the double crown with the uraeus complete with the flail and
crook regalia
-
Tutankhamun
depicted as Osiris the father of all Egypt
-
Tutankhamun
depicted as his Ka
-
These images can
be interpreted as Tutankhamun depicted as the Father, the
Son and Holy Spirit
Tutankhamun Tomb Paintings
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